Message From the Chair

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to welcome you to the website of the UCLA History Department. The Department is acknowledged as one of the great centers for the study of history in the world. What makes us excellent are the people of the Department: our more than 60 award-winning faculty members, 200 brilliant graduate students, and thousands of outstanding undergraduates who take our courses.

It is our mission at the UCLA History Department to provide historical knowledge, depth, and perspective to our students—and to the broader public with whom we constantly interact. In addition to offering hundreds of courses, the Department sponsors the Public History Initiative, which is our main instrument for reaching beyond campus to infuse historical knowledge into society through K-12 curricula, student internships, mentorship programs, etc. We are also pleased to host an array of public lectures and symposia, including our well-known “Why History Matters,” open and free to the public. In the coming year, we will continue to build a rich network that connects graduates of the Department to the thousands of alumni out there who are anxious to give back.

I am delighted to introduce a number of new faces to the Department family. First, we are thrilled to welcome Stefania Tutino as professor of early modern European history. Prof. Tutino is currently away for a year in Italy, where she is the winner of a Rome Prize at the American Academy. We anxiously await her arrival in September 2015.

We are also pleased to welcome three new staff members:

Dr. Karen Wilson joins us as the first-ever Graduate Career Officer. Karen, who received her Ph.D. from our Department, will work with our graduate students to assure that they be skilled and competitive in the ever-changing market-place, which includes, but is not restricted, to academia.

Deborah Dauda joins us as a new graduate/undergraduate counselor. Deborah received her undergraduate and master’s degrees at UCLA, and will contribute both great wisdom and boundless energy to our students.

Jessica Bellamy joins us as our new program coordinator. Jessica received her undergraduate degree at USC and will work to schedule and arrange logistics for our many Department events.

We are happy to welcome these new faculty and staff. One of our priorities for the coming year will be to elevate the level of effectiveness of our student career development efforts. Karen Wilson will work alongside Daniella Washington, who joined our team last year, to build networks of contacts for our students. Alumni and interested friends can help by being in touch with Karen (karen@history.ucla.edu) and Daniella (daniella@history.ucla.edu) to assist in this vital task. We also welcome you to contribute to the Department so as to ensure that history have a central place in our society—and to support the world-class research and teaching for which we are renowned. I look forward to hearing from you. Don’t hesitate to contact me (myers@history.ucla.edu) to share your thoughts about History@UCLA.

Alongside our existing 12 sub-fields, the History Department supports a number of cross-field clusters. The clusters are intended to attract students and faculty to important themes and current in the historical discipline. The clusters will offer new courses, sponsor outside speakers, and convene Department-based workshops and seminars.